Man’s Natural Blindness
In Things Of ReligionDated February 1739/1740. Three sermons
by Jonathan Edwards

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and
ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?
he that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen,
shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Psalm
94:8-11

Subject: There is an extreme and brutish blindness in things of religion
that naturally possesses the hearts of mankind.

SECTION I

Introductory observations.

IN these words the following particulars are to be observed. (1.) A
certain spiritual disease charged on some persons, viz. darkness, and blindness
of mind, appearing in their ignorance and folly. (2.) The great degree
of this disease; so as to render the subjects of it fools. Ye fools, when
will ye be wise? And so as to reduce them to a degree of brutishness. Ye
brutish among the people. This ignorance and folly were to such a degree,
as to render men like beasts. (3.) The obstinacy of this disease; expressed
in that interrogation, When will ye be wise? Their blindness and folly
were not only very great; but deeply rooted and established, resisting
all manner of cure. (4.) Of what nature this blindness is. It is especially
in things pertaining to God. They were strangely ignorant of his perfections,
like beasts. And had foolish notions of him, as though he did not see,
nor know, and as though he would not execute justice, by chastising and
punishing wicked men. (5.) The unreasonableness and sottishness of the
notion they had of God, that he did not hear, did not observe their reproaches
of him and his people, is shown by observing that he planted the ear. It
is very unreasonable to suppose that he, who gave power of perceiving words
to others, should not perceive them himself. And the sottishness of their
being insensible of God’s all-seeing eye, and particularly of his seeing
their wicked actions, appears, in that God is the being who formed the
eye and gave others a power of seeing. The sottishness of their apprehension
of God, as though he did not know what they did, is argued from his being
the fountain and original of all knowledge. The unreasonableness of their
expecting to escape God’s just chastisements and judgments for sin is set
forth by his chastising even the heathen, who did not sin against that
light, or against so great mercies, as the wicked in Israel did; nor had
ever made such a profession as they. (6.) We may observe, that this dreadful
disease is ascribed to mankind in general. The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of MAN, that they are vanity. The psalmist had been setting forth the vanity
and unreasonableness of the thoughts of some of the children of men. And
immediately upon it he observes that this vanity and foolishness of thought
is common and natural to mankind.

From these particulars we may fairly deduce the following doctrinal
observation: THAT THERE IS AN EXTREME AND BRUTISH BLINDNESS IN THINGS OF
RELIGION, WHICH NATURALLY POSSESSES THE HEARTS OF MANKIND. — This doctrine
is not to be understood as any reflection on the capacity of the human
nature. For God has made man with a noble and excellent capacity. The blindness
I speak of is not merely negative ignorance, such as in trees and stones
that know nothing. They have no faculties of understanding and perception,
whereby they should be capable of any knowledge. And inferior animals,
though they have sensitive perception, are not capable of any intellectual
views. There is no fault to be found with man’s natural faculties. God
has given men faculties truly noble and excellent, well capable of true
wisdom and divine knowledge. Nor is the blindness I speak of like the ignorance
of a new-born infant, which arises from want of necessary opportunity to
exert these faculties.

The blindness that is in the heart of man, which is spoken of in the
text and doctrine, is neither for want of faculties, nor opportunity to
know, but from some positive cause. *2* There is a principle in his heart,
of such a blinding and besotting nature, that it hinders the exercises
of his faculties about the things of religion, exercises for which God
has made him well capable, and for which he gives him abundant opportunity.

In order to make it appear that such an extreme brutish blindness, with
respect to the things of religion, does naturally possess the hearts of
men, I shall show how this is manifest in those things that appear in men’s
open profession. And how it is manifest in those things that are found
by inward experience, and are visible in men’s practice.

SECTION II

Man’s natural blindness in religion, manifested by those things which
appear in men’s open profession.

I WOULD now show, how it is manifest that there is a sottish and brutish
blindness in the hearts of men in the things of religion, by those things
which appear in men’s open profession.

I. It appears in the grossness of that ignorance and those delusions
which have appeared among mankind. Man has faculties given him whereby
he is well capable of inferring the being of the Creator from the creatures.
The invisible things of God are very plainly and clearly to be seen by
the things that are made. And the perfections of the Divine Being, his
eternal power and Godhead, are very manifest in the works of his hands.
And yet grossly absurd notions concerning the Godhead have prevailed in
the world. Instead of acknowledging and worshipping the true God, they
have fallen off to the worship of idols. Instead of acknowledging the one
only true God, they have made a multitude of deities. Instead of worshipping
a God, who is an almighty, infinite, all-wise, and holy Spirit, they have
worshipped the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; and the works
of their own hands, images of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and
stone; gods that can neither hear, nor see, nor walk, nor speak, nor do,
nor know anything. Some in the shape of men, others in the shape of oxen
and calves; some in the shape of serpents, others of fishes, etc.

The sottishness of men in thus worshipping the lifeless images which
they themselves have made, is elegantly and forcibly represented by the
prophet Isaiah. “The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and
fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms.
Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth; he drinketh no water, and
is faint. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with
a line: he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass,
and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man,
that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh
the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees
of the forest; he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall
it be for a man to burn; for he will take thereof and warm himself; yea,
he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth
it: he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part
thereof in the fire: with part thereof he eateth flesh: he roasteth roast,
and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I
have seen the fire. And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven
image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it,
and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god. They have not known, nor understood:
for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that
they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there
knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire,
yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh,
and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall
I fall down to the stock of a tree?” (Isa. 44:12-19).

Many of the images which the heathen worshipped were made in the most
monstrous and terrible shapes they could devise. And the more hideous and
frightful they appeared, the better they supposed they would serve their
turn for gods. Some of their images were made so as to be the most unclean
representations; images of men openly exposing their nakedness. These unclean
images, they judged, appeared in a god-like manner, and worthy to be worshipped.
Many, instead of worshipping a holy and good God, and infinitely perfect
Being, ascribed vices to many of the gods which they worshipped. One god
they reckoned notorious for drunkenness; others notorious for uncleanness.
To others they ascribed lying and stealing; to others cruelty; and yet
looked upon them worthy to be worshipped as gods! Many worshipped devils,
who appeared to them, and whom they themselves reckoned to be evil spirits.
But yet built temples, and offered sacrifices to them because they were
afraid of them. Many worshipped beasts and birds and fishes. And the most
hateful and loathsome animals were most worshipped. Particularly, serpents
were more commonly worshipped than any other beast. Many worshipped rivers
and trees and mountains. They worshipped many diseases. There is scarcely
anything of which men have not made gods.

And so far has that principle of blindness prevailed, with respect to
the things of religion, that it has in a great measure extinguished all
light in the minds of many, even in matters of morality, and things that
have but a distant relation to religion. So that many whole nations have
professedly approved of many things directly contrary to the light of nature.
And the most horrid vices and immoralities have been esteemed harmless,
yea, accounted virtues among them, such as revenge, cruelty, and incest.
Many nations have openly allowed the practice of sodomy. And with some
it has been accounted commendable to marry their nearest relations. Many
have even worshipped their gods in their temples with acts of drunkenness
and whoredom, and the most abominable lewdness. And the more filthy they
were in their uncleanness, they thought their gods the more pleased and
delighted with it.

Many nations have been so under the influence of mental blindness that
they have been void of all civility, and have been reduced to a state very
little above the beasts in their common customs, and ordinary way of living,
and in a great many things far below the beasts, being, if I may so speak,
much more beastly than the beasts themselves. Now this has not been, because
these men, with whom this has been the case, have not had the same faculties
that we have. That we are not as ignorant as they, is not because we have
better natural understandings, or that our minds are by nature more clear,
and our eyes more discerning, or that our hearts are not naturally so inclined
to sottishness and delusion as theirs. But only because God has not left
us so much to ourselves, as he has them. He has given us more instruction
to help us against our delusions. God has so ordered it in his providence
that we should have his good word to instruct us. And has caused that we
should grow up from our infancy under Christian instruction.

II. The extreme blindness and sottishness in things of religion, which
is naturally in the hearts of men, appears not only in embracing and professing
those errors that are very great, but also those that are so unnatural.
They have not only embraced errors which are very contrary to truth, but
very contrary to humanity, not only against the light of nature, but against
the more innocent inclinations of nature. Such has been, and still is,
the blindness of many nations in the world, that they embrace those errors
which do not only exclude all true virtue, all holy dispositions, but those
that have swallowed up the more harmless inclinations of human nature.

Thus they have embraced many gross delusions that are as contrary as
possible to natural affection. Such as offering up their own children in
sacrifice to their idol, which has been a common thing in the heathen world.
And the parents have not only offered them up to death, but they have brought
them, and offered them up to the most cruel and tormenting deaths: as,
to be burnt alive, to be broiled to death in burning brass; which was the
way of offering up children to Moloch. The image of the idol being made
of brass, in a horrid shape, was heated red hot. And the poor child was
laid naked in this burning brass, and so burnt to death. And the parents
themselves brought the child to this offering, however sweet and pleasant
a child it might be. And thus the innocent child was tormented till it
died, without any regard to its piteous cries. And it has been the manner
of some nations, to offer in sacrifice the fairest and best beloved child
that they had. And thus many thousands of poor babes have been offered
up. So strong has been the tendency of the hearts of men to delusion, that
it has thus overcome those strong natural affections which men have to
the fruit of their own bodies.

And many of these delusions have been against men’s natural love of
their own ease, and aversion to pain. Many have worshipped their idols,
and do so to this day, with such rites as are most painful and tormenting,
cutting, gashing, and mangling their own flesh. Thus they sottishly worshipped
Baal of old. “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner
with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.” (1 Kin.
18:28). And it is still the custom in some nations grievously to torment
themselves, to kindle a fire to scorch their own bodies in a most miserable
manner, and to put themselves to various and long-continued torments to
please their idols. And it is the manner in some countries for persons,
on certain occasions, to kill themselves, yea, to put themselves to cruel
deaths, to cast themselves into great fires, and there burn themselves
to death. How powerful must be the delusions of the human mind, and how
strong the tendency of the heart to carry them such a length, and so to
overcome the tenderest feelings of human nature!

III. The extreme blindness of the mind of man will appear further, if
we consider how general gross ignorance and delusion has been. It has for
the most part prevailed through the greater part of the world. For most
of the time from Noah’s flood to the coming of Christ, all nations, except
the children of Israel, were overspread with gross heathenish darkness;
being given up to the most vain and ridiculous notions, and all manner
of superstitious, barbarous, absurd, and unnatural practices. And, for
the greater part of the time since, most nations of the world have been
covered with gross darkness.

So it is at this day. Many nations are under popish darkness, and are
in such gross delusions that they worship the Virgin Mary, and a great
multitude of dead men, whom their church has canonized for saints, some
real saints, and others abominably wicked men. So they worship the bread
in the sacrament, and account it not only the real body of Christ, but
real Christ in body and soul, and divinity. They carry a wafer, a small
piece of bread, in procession, fall down before it, adore it, and account
it Christ himself, both in his divine and human nature. And yet believe
that the body of Christ is in heaven, and in ten thousand different places
on earth at the same time. They think they can do works of supererogation;
that is, more good works than they are obliged to do, whereby they bring
God into debt to them. They whip themselves, and put themselves to other
ridiculous penances and sufferings, whereby they think they appease the
anger of God for their sins. And they pay money to the priests to buy the
pardon of their sins. Yea, they buy indulgences for future crimes, or pardon
for sins before they commit them. They think they defend themselves from
evil spirits, by sprinkling holy water. They pay money to buy the souls
of their departed friends out of purgatory. They worship the relics of
dead saints, such as pieces of their bones, their teeth, their hair, pieces
of their garments, and the like. And innumerable other such foolish delusions
are they under.

A great part of the nations of the world are Mahometans; many of the
articles of whose belief are too childish and ridiculous to be publicly
mentioned in solemn assembly. — But the greater part of the inhabitants
of the world are to this day gross, barbarous heathens, who have not the
knowledge of the true God, but worship idols and devils, with all manner
of absurd and foolish rites and ceremonies, and are destitute of even common
civility: multitudes of nations being like beasts in human shape. — Now
this barbarous ignorance and gross delusion being of such great extent
and continuance, shows that the cause is general, and that the defect is
in the corrupted nature of mankind, man’s natural blindness and proneness
of his heart to delusion.

IV. The sottish blindness and folly of the heart of men appears in their
being so prone to fall into such gross delusions, soon after they have
been favored with clear light. Were not the minds of men exceeding dark,
they never would entertain such absurd notions at all. For they are as
contrary as possible to reason. Much less would they fall into them after
they had once been instructed in the truth. For, were it not very strange
and great sottishness indeed, they would — when they come to be informed
of the truth, and have opportunity to compare it with those gross errors
— behold such a reasonableness in the truth, and such absurdity in those
errors, that they would never be in danger of being deluded by them any
more. But yet so it is. Mankind, after they have been fully instructed,
and have lived in clear light, have, time after time, presently lost the
knowledge of the truth, and have exchanged it for the most barbarous and
brutish notions.

So it was early after the flood, whereby the wicked world, those that
were visibly so, were destroyed; and none were left but those who professed
the true religion. And they had such an eminently holy man as Noah to instruct
them. And though the true God had so wonderfully and astonishingly manifested
himself in that great work of vengeance against his enemies; yet the posterity
of Noah, in great part, presently lost the knowledge of the true God, and
fell away to idolatry, and that even while Noah was living. And the ancestors
of Abraham were tainted with that idolatry, even Terah his own father.
“And Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah
the father of Abraham, and father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,” etc.
(Jos. 24:2, 3, 4). It seems as though Abraham was called away from his
father’s house, and from his own country, for this reason that the country
was overrun with idolatry.

And even many of the posterity of Abraham and Isaac — Abraham’s posterity
by Hagar and Keturah, and that part of Isaac’s posterity which were of
Esau — though the true religion was so thoroughly taught and practiced
in the houses of those holy patriarchs, and God had from time to time so
wonderfully and miraculously manifested himself to them, yet — soon cast
off the true God, and fell away to idolatry. For, not very long after,
we read of the posterity of Jacob as being the only people of God, that
he had in all the earth. — And so the people of that part of the land of
Canaan, who were under that holy king Melchizedeck, soon totally cast off
the worship of the one only true God, which he taught and maintained. For
before Joshua brought in the children of Israel, the inhabitants of that
land were wholly given to idolatry. So the people of the land of Uz, who
were under the government of so great and holy a man as Job, soon lost
the knowledge of the true God, and all those religious truths which were
then known among them, and sunk into gross idolatry.

So the posterity of Jacob, themselves — though God had manifested himself
to them, and had wrought such wonders for them in the time of Jacob and
Joseph, yet — presently fell to worship the gods of Egypt. This appears
from the words of Joshua, “Put away the gods which your fathers served
on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt.” (Jos. 24:14). And how soon
did they fall to worship a golden calf in the wilderness, in the midst
of the wonderful and miraculous manifestations of the one only true God!
And notwithstanding idolatry was so strictly forbidden, and the folly and
wickedness of it so clearly manifested, in the law of Moses and in God’s
providence. Yet, how soon did they fall into idolatry after they were brought
into the land of Canaan! And when God raised up eminent men, judges to
instruct and govern them, and reclaim them from their idolatrous practices,
from time to time. Though they professed to be convinced of their foolish
delusion, yet they would soon fall again into the most sottish idolatry.
And this they did soon after such great light as they enjoyed in the time
of Samuel, David, and Solomon. And so, from time to time, down to the Babylonish
captivity.

And in the apostles’ times, when such great things were done to rouse
the attention of mankind, and such great light was spread over many nations,
multitudes, after they had been instructed in the Christian religion by
the apostles and others, fell away into the grossest heresies, and embraced
the most corrupt and absurd notions. — After the Roman empire had been
converted from heathenism to Christianity, and the light of the gospel
had driven out the sottish ignorance and gross absurdities of pagan idolatry,
in which they had continued so long, they soon began to fall away from
the truth into antichristian superstition and idolatry, in which are opinions
and practices no less absurd than those of the heathen. And a great part
of the Christian world fell away to Mahometanism.

And since the reformation, wherein God wonderfully restored gospel light
in a great part of the Christian world, which was but about two hundred
years ago, many are fallen away again, some to popery, some to gross heresies,
and some to atheistical principles. So that the reformed church is greatly
diminished. — And as to our nation in particular, which has been a nation
favored with light, since the reformation, above most, if not any in the
world; how soon has it in great part fallen away! A great part of it to
atheism, deism, and gross infidelity. And others to Arminianism, and to
the Socinian and Arian heresies, to believe that Christ is a created dependent
God. And to hold other foolish absurdities! And many have of late openly
disputed and denied the moral evil of some of the greatest and most heinous
vices.

These things show how desperately prone mankind are to blindness and
delusion, how addicted they are to darkness. — God now and then, by his
instructions lifts up some nations out of such gross darkness. But then,
how do they sink down into it again, as soon as his hand is withdrawn!
Like a heavy stone, which, though it may be forced upwards, yet sinks down
again. And will continue to sink lower and lower with a swift progress,
if there be nothing to restrain it. That is the woeful tendency of the
mind of man since the fall, notwithstanding his noble powers and faculties;
even to sink down into a kind of brutality, to lose and extinguish all
useful light, and to sink lower and lower into darkness.

V. The extreme and brutish blindness that possesses the hearts of men
naturally, appears in their being so confident in gross errors and delusions.
Some things mentioned already show how confident and assured they are,
particularly, their running such great ventures as offering up their children
and cutting and mangling themselves. Multitudes live and die in the most
foolish and absurd notions and principles, and never seem to make any doubt
of their being in the right.

The Mahometans seem to make no doubt but that, when they die, they shall
go to such a paradise as Mahomet has promised them. Where they shall live
in all manner of sensual pleasures, and shall spend their time in gratifying
the lusts of the flesh. Mahomet promised them that all who die in war for
the defense of the Mahometan religion, shall go to this paradise. And they
make no doubt of it. Therefore, many of them, as it were, willingly rush
on upon the point of the sword.

The papists, many of them at least, make no doubt of the truth of those
foolish notions of a purgatory, and the power of the priests to deliver
them out of it, and give them eternal life. And therefore will not spare
vast sums of money to purchase deliverance from those imaginary torments.
How confident are many heretics in the grossest heresies! and how bold
are many deists in their infidelity!

VI. The desperateness of that blindness which is in the heart of man,
appears, in that no nation or people in the world ever have had any remedy
or deliverance from such gross ignorance and delusion, from themselves.
No instance can be mentioned of any people whatsoever, who have once fallen
into heathenish darkness, or any other gross superstitions and ridiculous
opinions in religion, that ever had any remedy by any wisdom of their own.
Or that have, of themselves, grown wiser by the improvement of their own
faculties, and by instructing one another. Or that ever had any remedy
at all, by the teaching of any wise men, who did not professedly act as
moved and directed of God, and did not declare, that they had their instructions,
in the first place, from him.

Thus in the heathen world. Before Christ’s time, the whole world, except
the Jews, lay in their darkness for a great many hundred years, even beyond
all time of which they had any certain history among them. And there was
no remedy, nor any appearance of a remedy; they continued, ages after ages,
waxing worse and worse, sinking deeper and deeper. Among all the many nations
in the world, no one ever bethought themselves, and emerged out of their
brutish darkness. There were indeed some nations that emerged out of slavery,
cast off the yoke of their enemies, grew great, and conquered great part
of the world. But they never conquered the blindness of their own hearts.

There were some nations who excelled in other knowledge, as the Greeks
and Romans. They excelled in policy, and in the form of their civil government.
They had wise political rulers. They had excellent laws for regulating
their civil state, many of which have been imitated, as a pattern, by many
Christian nations ever since. They excelled many other nations in arts,
government, and civility, almost as much as men in common do beasts. Yet
they never could deliver themselves from their heathenism. Though they
were so wise in other things, yet in matters of religion they were very
absurd and brutish. For even the Greeks and Romans, in their most flourishing
state, worshipped innumerable gods. And some to whom they ascribed great
vices. And some they worshipped with most obscene and horrid rites. To
some they offered human sacrifices. The Romans had a temple dedicated to
the furies, which they worshipped. And they had a multitude of childish
notions and fables about their gods.

And though there were raised up some wise men and philosophers among
the Greeks and Romans, who borrowed some things concerning the true God
from the Jews; yet their instructions never were effectual to deliver any
one people, or even one city or town, from their barbarous heathenism,
or so much as to get any one society, or company of men, to unite in the
public worship of the true God. And these philosophers themselves had many
grossly absurd opinions, mingled with those scraps of truth which they
had gathered up.

And the Jews, when fallen away to idolatry, as they often did, never
recovered of themselves. Never any remedy appeared, unless God raised up,
and extraordinarily moved, some person to reprove and instruct them. —
And in this age of knowledge, an age wherein learning is carried to a great
height, even many learned men seem to be carried away with the gross errors
and fooleries of the popish religion.

Europe is a part of the world the most famed for arts and sciences of
any. And these things have been carried to a much greater height in this
age than in many others. Yet many learned men in Europe at this day, who
greatly excel in human arts and literature, are still under popish darkness.
A deceived heart has turned them aside. Nor do they seem to have any power
to deliver their souls. Nor does it come into their minds that there is
a lie in their right hands.

Many men in France and in other countries, who are indeed men of great
learning, knowledge, and abilities, yet seem really to think that the church
of Rome is the only true church of Christ. And are zealous to uphold and
propagate it. And though now, within this hundred years, human learning
has been very much promoted, and has risen to a greater height than ever
in the world. And has greatly increased not only in our nation, but in
France and Italy, and other popish countries. Yet there seems to be no
such effect of it, as any considerable turning from popish delusions. But
the church of Rome has rather increased of late, than otherwise.

And in England, a land wherein learning flourishes as much as in any
in the world, and which is perhaps the most favored with light of any,
there are many men of vast learning, and great and strong reason, who have
embraced, and do at this day embrace, the gross errors of the Arians and
Deists. Our nation, in all its light and learning, if full of infidels,
and those that are further from Christianity than the very Mahometans themselves.
Of so little avail is human strength, or human reason and learning, as
a remedy against the extreme blindness of the human mind. The blindness
of the mind, or an inclination to delusion in things of religion is so
strong that is will overcome the greatest learning, and the strongest natural
reason.

Men, if let alone, will not help one another. Nor will they help themselves.
The disease always proves without remedy, unless God delivers. This was
observed of old. “And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge
nor understanding to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire; yea, also
I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten
it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down
to the stock of a tree? He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has turned
him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie
in my right hand? (Isa. 44:19, 20).

If God lets men alone, no light arises. But the darkness grows thicker
and thicker. How is it now, at this very day, among all the nations where
the light of the gospel has not come? Many of whose ancestors, without
doubt, have been in the midnight darkness of heathenism for above three
thousand years. And not one people have delivered themselves, who have
not had the light of the gospel. And this is not owing to their want of
as good natural abilities as we have. Nor is it because they have an inclination
more to neglect their natural abilities, or make a worse improvement of
them than we.

VII. The extreme blindness of man’s heart, in matters of religion, appears
by men falling into gross delusions, or continuing in them, at the same
time that they have been under great means of instruction from God. We
have many instances of this; as Rachel in Jacob’s family; and the Israelites
in the wilderness, etc. These last had great means of instruction. Yet
they set up the golden calf, etc. And after Joshua’s time, they persisted
in their delusions and folly, from time to time, even under the reproofs
of the prophets, and even in such horrid delusions, so contrary to natural
affection, as offering their children in sacrifice to Moloch, burning them
alive, in a most cruel manner.

In the time of Christ and the apostles, the Jews had great means of
instruction, and most of the nations of the world were put under great
advantages to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yet what was the effect?
It would be easy to pursue these remarks respecting the papists in the
time of the reformation, and since — the Arians and Deists in our day,
etc. — but what has been said may be quite sufficient, if the reader will
but indulge reflection.

VIII. The exceedingly great blindness of men, in things of religion,
appears in the endless disputes and controversies, that there have been,
and are, among men, about those things which concern religion. — Of old,
the wise men and philosophers among the heathen, were, so to speak, infinitely
divided among themselves. Varro, who was one of them, reckons up several
hundred opinions about that one point, Wherein man’s happiness consisted?
And they were continually in disputes one with another. But the effect
of their disputes was not any greater union, or any better agreement in
their opinions. They were as much divided after they had disputed many
ages, as they were at first. Yea, much more.

So there have long been disputes in the Christian world about opinions
and principles in religion. There is a vast variety of sects and opinions.
And disputes have been carried on, age after age, with great warmth, and
thousands of volumes have been written one against another. And all these
disputes have not terminated the differences, but they still subsist as
much as ever. Yea, they increase and multiply more and more. Instead of
ending controversies by disputing, one dispute only lays a foundation for
another. And thus the world goes on jangling and contending, daily writing
and printing. Being as it were deluged with controversial books. And all
to no purpose.

The increase of human learning does not bring these controversies to
an issue, but does really increase and multiply them. There probably never
was a time in our nation wherein there was such a vast variety of opinions
in matters of religion, as at this day. Every now and then, a new scheme
of things is broached, and various and contrary opinions are mixed and
jumbled, divided and subdivided. And every new writer is willing to have
the credit of some new notion.

And after this manner does this miserable world go on in endless confusion,
like a great multitude of fool-hardy persons, who go on in the dark, stumbling
and justling one against another, without perceiving any remedy for their
own, or affording any for their neighbor’s, calamity. — Thus I have shown
how the extreme blindness that possesses the hearts of men is manifest
in what appears in their profession.

SECTION III

Men’s extreme blindness manifested by inward experience, and especially
in their practices under the gospel.

I COME now to show, how this is manifest in those things that are found
by inward experience, and are visible in men’s practices under the light
of the gospel.

I. This appears in their being so prone to be deceived so many ways,
or being liable to such a multiplicity of deceits. There are thousands
of delusions in things which concern the affairs of religion, that men
commonly are led away with, who yet live under the light of the gospel.
— They are many ways deceived about God. They think him to be an exceeding
diverse kind of being from what he is, altogether such an one as themselves
(Psa. 50:21). They are deceived about his holiness, they do not realize
it, that he is such a holy being as he indeed is, or that he hates sin
with such a hatred as he declares he does. They are not convinced of his
truth, or that he certainly will fulfill his threatenings or his promises.
They are not convinced of his justice in punishing sin, as he does. They
have very wrong notions of Christ. They are not convinced of his ability
to save them, or of the sufficiency of his sacrifice and righteousness,
nor of his willingness to receive them.

Men are commonly subject to a great many errors about their duty. They
are ready to bring their principles to agree with their practices, instead
of bringing their practices to their principles, as they ought to do. They
will put innumerable false glosses on the rules of God’s Word, to bend
them to a compliance with their lusts. And so they “put darkness for light,
and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”

They are subject to deceits and delusions about the things of this world.
They imagine that there is happiness and satisfaction to be found in the
profits, pleasures, and honors, which are to be had here. They believe
all the deluding flatteries and promises of a vain world. And they will
hold that deceit and grand delusion, that these things are the highest
good. And will act accordingly; will choose these things for their portion.
And they will hold and practice upon that error, that these things are
of long continuance, and are to be depended upon.

They are greatly deceived about the things of another world. They undervalue
that heavenly glory, which is promised to the saints. And are not much
terrified with what they hear of the damnation of hell. They cannot realize
it, that its torments are so dreadful as they hear, and are very ready
to imagine that they are not eternal, but will some time or other have
an end.

They are deceived about the state of good men. They think they are not
happy, but live a melancholy life. And they are deceived about the wicked.
They envy the state of many of them as accounting them well off. “They
call the proud happy (Mal. 3:15), and bless the covetous, whom God abhors.”
(Psa. 10:3). And they strive a great deal more after such enjoyments as
these have, than after such as are the portion of the godly.

They are subject to a thousand deceits and delusions about themselves.
They think themselves wise, when they are fools. They are deceived about
their own hearts. They think them much better than they really are. They
think they see many good things in themselves, when indeed there is nothing
good there. They appear lovely in their own eyes, when their hearts are
like the inside of a grave, full of dead men’s bones and rotten flesh,
crawling worms, and all uncleanness. Or rather, the inward vault of hell,
that is a habitation of devils and every foul spirit. Those things in their
hearts are highly esteemed by them, which are an abomination in the sight
of God.

Men are very prone to be deceived about their own state, to think themselves
something when they are nothing, and to suppose themselves “rich and increased
in goods, and to have need of nothing, when they are wretched, and miserable,
and poor, and blind, and naked.” They are greatly deceived about the principles
they act from. They think they are sincere in that in which there is no
sincerity. And that they do those things from love to God, which they do
only from love to themselves. They call mere speculative or natural knowledge,
spiritual knowledge; and put conscience for grace; a servile, for a childlike
fear; and common affections, that are only from natural principles, and
have no abiding effect, for high discoveries, and eminent actings of grace.
Yea, it is common with men to call their vicious dispositions by the name
of some virtue. They call their anger and malice, zeal for a righteous
cause, or zeal for the public good. And their covetousness, frugality.

They are vastly deceived about their own righteousness. They think their
affections and performances lovely to God, which are indeed hateful to
him. They think their tears, reformations, and prayers, sufficient to make
atonement for their sins, when indeed if all the angels in heaven should
offer themselves in sacrifice to God, it would not be sufficient to atone
for one of their sins. They think their prayers and works, and religious
doings a sufficient price to purchase God’s favor and eternal glory. When,
as they perform them, they do nothing but merit hell.

They are greatly deceived about their strength. They think they are
able to mend their own hearts, and work some good principles in themselves.
When they can do no more towards it, than a dead corpse does towards raising
itself to life. They vainly flatter themselves, they are able to come to
Christ, when they are not. They are greatly deceived about the stability
of their own hearts. They foolishly think their own intentions and resolutions
of what good they will do hereafter, to be depended on. When indeed there
is no dependence at all to be had on them. They are greatly deceived about
their opportunities. They think that the long continuance of their opportunity
is to be depended on, and that tomorrow it is to be boasted of. When indeed
there is the utmost uncertainty of it. They flatter themselves that they
shall have a better opportunity to seek salvation hereafter, than they
have now. When there is no probability of it, but a very great improbability.

They are greatly deceived about their own actions and practices. Their
own faults are strangely hid from their eyes. They live in ways that are
very unbecoming Christians, but yet seem not to be at all sensible of it.
Those evil ways of theirs, which are very plain to others, are hid from
them. Yea, those very things, which they themselves account great faults
in others, they will justify themselves in. Those things for which they
will be very angry with others, they at the same time do themselves, and
oftentimes in a much higher degree, and never once think of it. While they
are zealous to pull the mote out of their brother’s eye, they know not
that a beam is in their own eye.

Those sins that they commit, which they are sensible are sins, they
are woefully deceived about. They call great sins, little ones. And in
their own imaginations, find out many excuses, which make the guilt very
small, while the many heinous aggravations are hid from their eyes. They
are greatly deceived about themselves, when they compare themselves with
others. They esteem themselves better than their neighbors, who are indeed
much better than themselves. They are greatly deceived about themselves,
when they compare themselves with God. They are very insensible of the
difference there is between God and them, and act in many things as if
they thought themselves his equals. Yea, as if they thought themselves
above him. Thus manifold are the deceits and delusions that men fall into.

II. The desperate blindness that is natural to men appears in their
being so ignorant and blind in things that are so clear and plain. Thus
if we consider how great God is, and how dreadful sin against him must
be, and how much sin we are guilty of, and of what importance it is that
his infinite Majesty should be vindicated; how plain is it, that man’s
righteousness is insufficient! And yet how greatly will men confide in
it! How will they ascribe more to it, than can be ascribed to the righteousness
of the sinless and glorious angels of heaven. What can be more plain in
itself, than that eternal things are of infinitely greater importance than
temporal things? And yet how hard is it thoroughly to convince men of it!
How plain is it, that eternal misery in hell is infinitely to be dreaded!
And yet how few appear to be thoroughly convinced of this! How plain is
it, that life is uncertain! And yet how much otherwise do most men think!
How plain is it, that it is the highest prudence in matters of infinite
concern to improve the first opportunity, without trusting to another!
But yet how few are convinced of this! How reasonable is it, considering
that God is a wise and just being, to suppose that there shall be a future
state of rewards and punishments, wherein every man shall receive according
to his works! And yet, how does this seem like a dream to most men!

What can be in itself more plain and manifest, and easily to be known
by us, if it were not for a strange blindness, than we are to ourselves,
who are always with, never absent from ourselves; always in our own view,
before our own eyes; who have opportunity to look into our own hearts,
and see all that passes there? And yet what is there that men are more
ignorant of, than they are of themselves! There are many vicious practices,
the unlawfulness of which is very plain, the sins are gross, and contrary
not only to the Word of God, but to the light of nature. And yet men will
often plead, there is no harm in such sins. Such as, many acts of gross
uncleanness; and many acts of fraud, injustice and deceitfulness; and many
others that might be mentioned.

There is no one thing whatsoever more plain and manifest, and more demonstrable,
than the being of a God. It is manifest in ourselves, in our own bodies
and souls, and in everything about us wherever we turn our eye, whether
to heaven, or to the earth, the air, or the seas. And yet how prone is
the heart of man to call this into question! So inclined is the heart of
man to blindness and delusion, that it is prone to even atheism itself.

III. The great blindness of the heart of man appears, in that so little
a thing will deceive him, and confound his judgment. A little self-interest,
or only the bait of some short gratification of a sensual appetite, or
a little stirring of passion, will blind men’s eyes, and make them argue
and judge most strangely and perversely, and draw the most absurd conclusion,
such as, if they were indifferent, they would see to be most unreasonable.
The devil finds easy work to deceive them a thousand ways; an argument
of the great weakness and blindness of our minds. As a little child, weak
in understanding, is very easily deceived.

IV. The woeful blindness that possesses the hearts of men naturally,
appears in their being all totally ignorant of that in God, which they
had most need to know; viz. the glory and excellency of his nature. Though
our faculties, which we have above the beasts, were chiefly given us that
we might know this, and though without this knowledge all other will signify
nothing to us, and our faculties are as capable of it, as of any other
knowledge whatsoever — and which is as plainly and abundantly manifested
as anything whatsoever, innumerable ways, both in the word and works of
God — yet all men naturally are totally ignorant of this. As ignorant as
one born blind is of colors. Natural men of the greatest abilities and
learning, are as ignorant of it as the weakest and the most unlearned.
Yea, as ignorant as the very stocks and stones. For they see, and can see
nothing at all of it.

V. It appears, in that they are so blind in those same things in religious
matters, which they are sufficiently sensible of in other matters. In temporal
things they are very sensible that it is a point of prudence to improve
the first opportunity in things of great importance. But in matters of
religion, which are of infinitely the greatest importance, they have not
this discernment. In temporal matters they are sensible that it is a great
folly long to delay and put off, when life is in danger, and all depends
upon it. But in the concerns of their souls, they are insensible of this
truth. So in the concerns of this world, they are sensible it is prudence
to improve times of special advantage, and to embrace a good offer when
made them. They are sensible that things of long continuance are of greater
importance, than those of short duration. Yet in religious concerns, none
of these things are sensibly discerned. In temporal things they are sufficiently
sensible, that it is a point of prudence to lay up for hereafter, in summer
to lay up for winter, and to lay up for their families, after they are
dead. But men do not generally discern the prudence of making a proper
provision for a future state. — In matters of importance in this world,
they are sensible of the wisdom of taking thorough care to be on sure grounds.
But in their soul’s concerns they see nothing of this. Our Savior observed
this to be the case with the Jews when he was upon earth. “Ye hypocrites,
ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth: but how is it that
ye do not discern this time?” (Luke 12:56)

VI. The desperate blindness that naturally possesses the hearts of men
under the gospel, appears in their remaining so stupidly insensible and
deceived, under so great means of instruction and conviction. If they were
brought up under heathenish darkness, it would not be so full a demonstration
of it. But thus they remain, though under the clearest light, under the
glorious light of the gospel, where they enjoy God’s own instructions in
his word, in a great fullness and plainness, and have the evidence and
truth of things set before them from time to time in the plainest manner.
They have the arguments of God’s being and perfection, and of another world.
They are told how eternal things are of greater importance than temporal,
and of what importance it is to escape eternal misery. How much it is worth
while to take pains for heavenly glory, and how vain their own righteousness
is. But yet to what little purpose!

And they have not only great means of instruction in God’s Word, but
also in providence. They have the evidence of the shortness and uncertainty
of life. “He seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish
person perish, and leave their wealth to others.” Yet “their inward thought
is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places
to all generations: they call their lands after their own names. nevertheless
man being in honor, abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This
their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings.” They
find the world is vain and unsatisfactory. They find the great instability
and treachery of their own hearts, and how their own good intentions and
resolutions are not to be depended on. They often find by experience that
their attempts to make them better, fail. But, alas! With what small effect!

Such abundant evidence is there, both in what appears in the open profession
of men, and also by what is found in their inward experience, and is evident
in their practice, of the extreme and brutish ignorance and blindness,
which naturally possess their hearts.

SECTION IV

Practical inferences and application of the subject.

HAVING shown how the truth of the doctrine is evident, both by what
appears in men’s open profession, and by those things which are found by
inward experience, and are manifest by what is visible in men’s practice,
I proceed to improve the subject.

I. By this we may see how manifest are the ruins of the fall of man.
It is observable in all the kinds of God’s creatures that we behold, that
they have those properties and qualities, which are every way proportioned
to their end. So that they need no more, they stand in need of no greater
degree of perfection, in order well to answer the special use for which
they seem to be designed. The brute creatures, birds, beasts, fishes, and
insects, though there be innumerable kinds of them, yet all seem to have
such a degree of perception and perfection given them, as best suits their
place in the creation, their manner of living, and the ends for which they
were made. There is no defect visible in them. They are perfect in their
kind. There seems to be nothing wanting, in order to their filling up their
allotted place in the world. And there can be no reasonable doubt but that
it was so at first with mankind. It is not reasonable to suppose, that
God would make many thousands of kinds of creatures in this lower world,
and one kind the highest of them all, to be the head of the rest, and that
all the rest should be complete in their kinds, every way endowed with
such qualifications as are proportioned to their use and end. And only
this most noble creature of all, left exceeding imperfect, notoriously
destitute of what he principally stands in need of to answer the end of
his being. The principal faculty by which God has distinguished this noble
creature from the rest, is his understanding. But would God so distinguish
man in his creation from other creatures, and then seal up that understanding
with such an extreme blindness, as to render it useless, as to the principal
ends of it, and wholly to disenable him from answering the ends of an intelligent
creature, and to make his understanding rather a misery than a blessing
to him, and rendering him much more mischievous than useful? Therefore,
if the Scripture had not told us so, yet we might safely conclude, that
mankind are not now, as they were made at first. But that they are in a
fallen state and condition.

II. From what has been said, plainly appears the necessity of divine
revelation. The deists deny the Scripture to be the Word of God, and hold
that there is no revealed religion, that God has given mankind no other
rule but his own reason, who is sufficient, without any word or revelation
from heaven, to give man a right understanding of divine things, and of
his duty. But how is it proved in fact? How much trial has there been,
whether man’s reason, without a revelation, would be sufficient or not!
The whole world, excepting one nation, had the trial till the coming of
Christ. And was not this long enough for trial, whether man’s reason alone
was sufficient to instruct him? Those nations, who all that time lay in
such gross darkness, and in such a deplorable helpless condition, had the
same natural reason that the deists have. And during this time, there was
not only one man, or a succession of single persons, that had the trial,
whether their own reason would be sufficient to lead them to the knowledge
of the truth. But all nations, who all had the same human faculties that
we have. If human reason is really sufficient, and there be no need of
anything else, why has it never proved so? Why has it never happened, that
so much as one nation, or one city or town, or one assembly of men, have
been brought to tolerable notions of divine things, unless it be by the
revelation contained in the Scriptures? If it were only one nation that
had remained in such darkness, the trial might not be thought so great,
because one particular people might be under some disadvantages, which
were peculiar. But thus it has been with all nations, except those which
have been favored with the Scriptures, and in all ages. Where is any people,
who to this day have ever delivered themselves by their own reason, or
have been delivered without light fetched from the Scriptures, or by means
of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

If human reason is sufficient without the Scripture, is it not strange
that, in these latter ages — since navigation has been so improved, and
America and many other parts of the world have been discovered, which were
before unknown — no one nation has anywhere been found already enlightened,
and possessed of true notions about the Divine Being and his perfections,
by virtue of that human reason they have been possessed of so many thousand
years? The many poor, barbarous nations here, in America, had the faculty
of reason to do what they pleased with, before the Europeans came hither,
and brought over the light of the gospel. If human reason alone was sufficient,
it is strange, that no one people were found, in any corner of the land,
who were helped by it, in the chief concern of man.

There has been a great trial, as to what men’s reason can do without
divine help, in those endless disputes that have been maintained. If human
reason alone could help mankind, it might be expected that these disputes
would have helped them, and have put an end to men’s darkness. The heathen
philosophers had many hundreds of years to try their skill in this way.
But all without effect. That divine revelation, which the church of God
has been possessed of, has been in the world “as a light shining in a dark
place.” (2 Peter 1:19) It is the only remedy which God has provided for
the miserable, brutish blindness of mankind, a remedy without which this
fallen world would have sunk down forever in brutal barbarism without any
remedy. It is the only means that the true God has made successful in his
providence, to give the nations of the world the knowledge of himself;
and to bring them off from the worship of false gods.

If human reason be the only proper means, the means that God has designed
for enlightening mankind, is it not very strange, that it has not been
sufficient, nor has answered this end in any one instance? All the right
speculative knowledge of the true God, which the deists themselves have,
has been derived from divine revelation. How vain is it to dispute against
fact, and the experience of so many thousand years! And to pretend that
human reason is sufficient without divine revelation, when so many thousand
years’ experience, among so many hundreds of nations of different tempers,
circumstances, and interests, has proved the contrary! One would think
all should acknowledge, that so long a time is sufficient for a trial,
especially considering the miseries that the poor nations of the world
have been under all this while, for want of light: the innumerable temporal
calamities and miseries — such as sacrificing children, and many other
cruelties to others, and even to themselves — besides that eternal perdition,
which we may reasonably suppose to be the consequence of such darkness.

III. This doctrine should make us sensible, how great a mercy it is
to mankind, that God has sent his own Son into the world, to be the light
of the world. — The subject shows what great need we stand in of some teacher
to be sent from God. And even some of the wiser men among the heathen saw
the need of this. They saw that they disputed and jangled among themselves
without coming to a satisfying discovery of the truth; and hence they saw,
and spoke of, the need there was of a teacher sent from heaven. And it
is a wonderful instance of divine mercy that God has so beheld us in our
low estate, as to provide such a glorious remedy. He has not merely sent
some created angel to instruct us, but his own Son, who is in the bosom
of the Father, and of the same nature and essence with him. And therefore
infinitely better acquainted with him, and more sufficient to teach a blind
world. He has sent him to be the light of the world, as he says of himself,
“I am come a light into the world.” (John 12:46) When he came, he brought
glorious light. It was like the day-spring from on high, visiting a dark
world, as Zacharias observes (Luke 1:77, 78, 79). After Christ came, then
the glorious gospel began to spread abroad, delivering those “that had
sitten in darkness, and in the region of the shadow of death.”

What reason have we to rejoice, and praise God, that he has made such
excellent provision for us, and has set so glorious a sun in our firmament,
such a “Sun of righteousness,” after we had extinguished the light which
at first enlightened us, and had, as it were, brought the world into that
state, in which it was when “without form, and void, and darkness was on
the face of it.” (Jer. 4:22, 23) — The glory of that light which God has
sent into the world is fully answerable to the grossness of that darkness
which filled it. For Christ who came to enlighten us is truth and light
itself, and the fountain of all light. “He is the light, and in him is
no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

IV. Hence we may learn, what must be the thing which will bring to pass
those glorious days of light, which are spoken of in God’s Word. — Though
mankind be fallen into such darkness, and the world be mostly in the kingdom
of darkness; yet the Scripture often speaks of a glorious day, wherein
light shall fill the earth. “For behold the darkness shall cover the earth,
and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and
his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,
and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isa. 60:2, 3.) “And he will
destroy in this mountain, the face of the covering cast over all people,
and the veil that is spread over all nations.” (Isa. 25:7) “The knowledge
of God shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:9)

By what we have heard, we may on good grounds conclude, that whenever
this is accomplished, it will not be effected by human learning, or by
the skill or wisdom of great men. What has been before observed of this
learned age, is a presumptive evidence of it, wherein spiritual darkness
increases with the increase of learning. God will again make foolish the
wisdom of this world. And will, as it were, say in his providence, “Where
is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?”

When this shall be accomplished, it will be by a remarkable pouring
out of God’s own Spirit, with the plain preaching of the gospel of his
Son, the preaching of the spiritual, mysterious doctrines of Christ crucified,
which to the learned men of this world are foolishness. Those doctrines,
which are the stumbling-block of this learned age. “Not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” It will not be by the
enticing words of man’s wisdom, but by the demonstration of the Spirit
and of power. Not by the wisdom of this world, nor by the princes of this
world, that come to nought. But by the gospel, that contains the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which none of the princes
of this world, who have nothing to enlighten them but their own learning,
know anything of.

The Spirit of God, who searches all things, even the deep things of
God, must reveal it. For let natural men be never so worldly wise and learned,
they receive not the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to them.
Nor can they know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This great
effect, when it is accomplished, will be a glorious effect indeed. And
it will be accomplished in such a manner, as most remarkably to show it
to be the work of God, and his only. It will be a more glorious work of
God than that which we read of in the beginning of Genesis. “And the earth
was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters: and God said,
Let there be light, and there was light.” (Gen. 1:2, 3)

V. Hence we may learn the misery of all such persons, as are under the
power of that darkness which naturally possesses their hearts. There are
two degrees of this misery.

First, that of which all who are in a natural condition are the subjects.
The doctrine shows that all such as are in a natural condition, are in
a miserable condition. For they are in an extremely dark and blind condition.
It is uncomfortable living in darkness. What a sorrowful state would we
all be in, if the sun should no more rise upon us, and the moon were to
withdraw her shining, and stars to be put out, and we were to spend the
rest of our time in darkness! The world would soon perish in such darkness.
It was a great plague in Egypt, when they had a total darkness for three
days. They who are deprived of sight, are deprived of the most noble of
the senses. They have no benefit of eternal light, one of the most excellent
and needful of all the things which God has made in the visible creation.
But they who are without spiritual sight and light, are destitute of that
which is far more excellent and necessary.

That natural men are not sensible of their blindness, and the misery
they are under by reason of it, is no argument that they are not miserable.
For it is very much the nature of this calamity to be hid from itself,
or from those who are under it. Fools are not sensible of their folly.
Solomon says, “the fool is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that
can render a reason.” (Pro. 26:16) The most barbarous and brutish heathens
are not sensible of their own darkness, are not sensible but that they
enjoy as great light, and have as good understanding of things, as the
most enlightened nations in the world.

Second, another degree of this misery is of those who are judicially
given up of God, to the blindness of their own minds. The Scripture teaches
us that there are some such. “What then; Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were
blinded.” (Rom. 11:7) “But their minds were blinded; for until this day
remaineth the same veil untaken away.” (2 Cor. 3:14) “And he said, Go and
tell this people, Hear ye indeed, and understand not; and see ye indeed,
and perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert and be healed.” (Isa.
6:6, 10) This judgment, when inflicted, is commonly for the contempt and
abuse of light which has been offered, for the commission of presumptuous
sins, and for being obstinate in sin, and resisting the Holy Ghost, and
many gracious calls and counsels, warnings and reproofs.

Who the particular persons are, that are thus judicially given up of
God to the blindness of their minds, is not known to men. But we have no
reason to suppose that there are not multitudes of them, and most in places
of the greatest light. There is no manner of reason to suppose that this
judgment, which is spoken of in Scripture, is in a great measure peculiar
to those old times. As there were many who fell under it in the times of
the prophets of old, and of Christ and his apostles. So doubtless there
are now also. And though the persons are not known, yet doubtless there
may be more reason to fear it concerning some than others. All who are
under the power of the blindness of their own minds are miserable. But
such as are given up to this blindness, are especially miserable. For they
are reserved, and sealed over to the blackness of darkness forever.

SECTION V

Address to sinners.

THE consideration of what has been said of the desperate blindness which
possesses the hearts of us all naturally, may well be terrifying to such
as are yet in a Christless condition, in this place of light, where the
gospel has been so long enjoyed, and where God has in times past so wonderfully
poured out his Spirit.

And let such persons, for their awakening, consider the following things:

First, that they are blinded by the god of this world. Their blindness
is from hell. This darkness which natural men are under, is from the prince
of darkness. This the apostle says expressly of those who remain in unbelief
and blindness under the gospel. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid from
them that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them that believe not.” (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) They belong to the kingdom of
darkness. In that darkness which reigns in their souls, the devil reigns.
And he holds his dominion there.

Second, consider how God in his word manifests his abhorrence and wrath
towards those who remain so sottishly blind and ignorant, in the midst
of light. How does God speak of them! “Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge?” (Psa. 14:4) “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation,
and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not
known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter
into my rest.” (Psa. 95:10, 11) “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass
his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Ah, sinful nation! — they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.”
(Isa. 1:3, 4) “It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made
them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them
no favour.” (Isa. 27:10, 11) “My people is foolish, they have not known
me, they are sottish children, and they have no understanding: they are
wise to do evil, but to do good they have non knowledge.” (Jer. 4:22) “Declare
this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in the house of Judah, saying,
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which have
eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not. Fear ye not ME, saith the
Lord; will ye not tremble at MY presence?” (Jer. 5:20, 21, 22)

Third, consider how much willfulness there is in your ignorance. Sinners
are ready wholly to excuse themselves in their blindness; whereas, as observed
already, the blindness that naturally possesses the hearts of men, is not
a merely negative thing. But they are blinded by “the deceitfulness of
sin.” (Heb. 3:13) There is a perverseness in their blindness. There is
not a mere absence of light, but a malignant opposition to the light. As
God says, “they know not, neither will they understand, they walk on in
darkness.” (Psa. 82:5) Christ observes, “that every one that doeth evil,
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light.” And that “this is their
condemnation, that light is come into the world, yet men loved darkness
rather than light.” (John 3:19, 20) And I may appeal to your own consciences,
whether you have no willfully rejected the many instructions you have had,
and refused to hearken? Whether you have not neglected to seek after the
light, and neglected your Bible? Whether you have not been a very negligent
hearer of the word preached, and neglected other proper means of knowledge?
Whether you have not neglected to cry to God for that wisdom which you
need? Yea, have you not resisted the means of knowledge? Have you not resisted
and quenched the motions of the Spirit, which at times you have had? And
taken a course to make yourself more and more stupid, by stifling the convictions
of your own conscience, and doing contrary to the light thereof; whereby
you have done those things that have tended to sear your conscience, and
make yourself more and more senseless and sottish?

Fourth, consider what is the course that God will take to teach those
who will not be taught by the instructions of his word. He will teach them
by briers and thorns, and by the flames of hell. Though natural men will
remain to all eternity ignorant of the excellency and loveliness of God’s
nature, and so will have no spiritual knowledge; yet God in another world
will make them thoroughly to understand many things, which senseless unawakened
sinners are sottishly ignorant of in this world. Their eyes in many respects
shall be thoroughly opened in hell. Their judgments will be rectified.
They shall be of the same judgment with the godly. They shall be convinced
of the reality of those things which they would not be convinced of here:
as the being of God, his power, holiness, and justice, that the Scriptures
are the Word of God, that Christ is the Son of God, and that time is short
and uncertain. They will be convinced of the vanity of the world, of the
blessed opportunity they had in the world, and how much it is men’s wisdom
to improve their time. We read of the rich man, who was so sottishly blind
in this world, that “in hell he lift up his eyes, and saw Abraham afar
off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” (Luke 16:23) With many men, alas! the first
time they open their eyes is in hell.

God will make all men to know the truth of those great things which
he speaks of in his word, one way or another. For he will vindicate his
own truth. He has undertaken to convince all men. They who will not be
convinced in this world, by the gentle and gracious methods which God uses
with them now, shall be convinced hereafter by severe means. If they will
not be convinced for salvation, they shall be convinced by damnation. God
will make them know that he is the Lord. And he will make them know that
he bears rule. “Consume them in wrath, that they may not be; and let them
know that God ruleth in Jacob, unto the ends of the earth.” (Psa. 59:13)
“Let them be confounded and troubled for ever: yea, let them be put to
shame, and perish. That men may know that thou, whose name is Jehovah,
art the Most High over all the earth.” (Psa. 83:17, 18)

What great care we had need all have, that we be not deceived in matters
of religion. If our hearts are all naturally possessed with such an extreme
brutish ignorance and blindness in things of religion, and we are exceedingly
prone to delusion, then surely great care ought to be taken to avoid it.
For that we are naturally prone to delusion, shows our danger. But the
greater our danger of any calamity is, the greater had our watchfulness
need to be. — Let us therefore be hence warned to take heed that we be
not deceived about our duty, about our own hearts, about our ways, about
our state, and about our opportunities. Thousands are deceived in these
things, and thousands perish by that means. Multitudes fall on our right
hand and on our left, and are ruined eternally by their delusion in these
things.

How foolish a thing it is for men to lean to their own understanding,
and trust their own hearts. If we are so blind, then our own wisdom is
not to be depended on, and that advice of the wise man is most reasonable.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding.”
(Pro. 3:5) “And he that trusteth in his own heart, is a fool.” (Pro. 28:26)
— They therefore are fools, who trust to their own wisdom, and will question
the mysterious doctrines of religion, because they cannot see through them,
and will not trust to the infinite wisdom of God.

Let us therefore become fools. Be sensible of our own natural blindness
and folly. There is a treasure of wisdom contained in that one sentence;
“If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become
a fool, that he may be wise.” (1 Cor. 3:18) Seeing our own ignorance, and
blindness, is the first step towards having true knowledge. “If any man
think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to
know.” (1 Cor. 8:2)

Let us ask wisdom of God. If we are so blind in ourselves, then knowledge
is not to be sought for out of our own stock, but must be sought from some
other source. And we have no where else to go for it, but to the fountain
of light and wisdom. True wisdom is a precious jewel. And none of our fellow-creatures
can give it us, nor can we buy it with any price we have to give. It is
the sovereign gift of God. The way to obtain it is to go to him sensible
of our weakness, and blindness, and misery on that account. “If any lack
wisdom, let him ask of God.” (Jam. 1:5).